Charles Leclerc’s Baku engine ‘past restore’, F1 penalty looms

Ferrari has confirmed that the engine that failed for Charles Leclerc on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is “past restore”, elevating the prospect of a grid penalty within the close to future.

Leclerc retired from Baku’s June 12 race whereas in a promising place to problem the Pink Bull drivers for victory.

He additionally suffered an influence unit failure whereas comfortably main Might’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Ferrari is just not ruling out the chance that the 2 failures have been linked.

A press release Ferrari launched on Friday mentioned: “Investigation confirmed Charles’ Baku PU is past restore. One potential reason for the failure is that it occurred as a consequence of the PU drawback in Spain.

“We are actually engaged on countermeasures to strengthen the bundle and the state of affairs is underneath management.”

Beneath the foundations, F1 engines are cut up into six elements.

Drivers have a set quantity of every element they’ll use earlier than incurring penalties.

Leclerc is now down on one complete engine from his pool and can possible want to maneuver past the allotted quantity in some unspecified time in the future, probably as early as Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

The primary time a driver does this, they have to serve a 10-place grid penalty, which is utilized after qualifying of the occasion in query.

Leclerc has seen a once-healthy championship lead disappear over the previous two months.

Leclerc has not received a race because the Australian Grand Prix on April 11 and has dropped 34 factors behind reigning championship Max Verstappen.